A thousand people braved frigid weather to attend the Remembrance Day Service at the Old City Hall Cenotaph in downtown Toronto on Saturday Nov. 11, 2017. (STAN BEHAL/Postmedia Network)

Remembrance Day last Saturday convinced me far too many Canadians are not doing enough to acknowledge the sacrifices of our veterans. I was appalled by the number of people who did not pause and stop what they were doing at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11.

We need to do more as a country to acknowledge the people who paid with their lives so we can have the life that we do. And let’s stop talking about a national holiday on Nov. 11.

Remembrance Day should not be a holiday for anyone – except our veterans and armed services people. It should be a day to acknowledge how fortunate we are because so many gave so much for us – not a day to vacation or shop.

Yes, some of us pause, or attend ceremonies, but most people carry on as if their freedom was free. It should be mandatory to stop what you are doing at 11 a.m. for two minutes of silence on Nov. 11.

Plus, we need to do more 365 days a year to acknowledge the thousands of Canadians who currently serve in our Armed forces.

I normally go to Toronto City Hall on Nov. 11. Thousands of people gather for the sombre ceremony every year. I started doing this 20 years ago when I worked for the mayor of Toronto, who participates in the annual ceremony.

There is a hushed silence before and during the ceremony. It is everything it should be and I have been fooled into thinking people across the city were silent at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, marking the signing of the armistice that ended the First World War.

This year, as Remembrance Day was on a Saturday, I took my 16-year-old daughter to Mount Pleasant Cemetery to participate in the Royal Canadian Air Force ceremony. It is walking distance from our house.

At 11 a.m., people continued to walk their dogs, jog, ride bikes and carry on conversations, while walking past the ceremony. I thought they must be a dozen of the most self-centered people in Toronto.

Cars and the traffic nearby kept going. Construction on a nearby house continued. Outside of the people attending the actual ceremony, no one seemed to stop what they were doing. I really can’t believe that so many people couldn’t take two minutes to stop what they were doing and think about why they have the freedom they do.

On Monday morning, Toronto radio station Newstalk 1010 program director Mike Bendixen told of a similar experience at a Remembrance Day ceremony at a mall. He was with his daughter and people continued to walk past during the moment of silence as an official ceremony was happening right in from of them.

In the First World War, 66,665 Canadians were killed, 46,998 in the Second World War, 516 in the Korean War, 121 in peacekeeping and 157 in Afghanistan. One in 10 Canadians who fought in the First World War did not return.

Forty percent of the male population in Canada between the ages of 18 and 45 served in the Second World War and nearly every single one of them volunteered.

We have tens of thousands of Canadian who have chosen “to stand on guard for thee” protecting us today. None of these Canadians benefit personally from doing what they did and what they continue to do.

We did and we still do. Surely, we can take two minutes a year to stop and think about that.

You might be one of the minority who paused on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. and I thank you for doing so. But we need to speak to those who didn’t and make sure they do so next year.

NOTE: One in four new dollars spent by the Trudeau government in its first two budgets was earmarked for veterans, a total of $6.3 billion. This money is for better access to services, including $5.6 billion for increasing the Disability Award and the Earnings Loss Benefit. Government still needs to do more – but it should be acknowledged this is a step in the right direction.

Jim Warren is a Liberal strategist who has worked for Toronto mayor Mel Lastman and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.

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